QotD: Taste the Haterade Edition

"This is because Kimber didn't design the 1911 - they just found ways to screw it up." -Andrew at Vuurwapen Blog

Wish I'd written that.

Anyway, speaking to the broader topic of his post, I'm not as down on carry gun modifications as he is, but I do see little reason to tweak a bunch of stuff that people often tweak.

Generally, for example, if people spent as much time and money learning to shoot the factory trigger in their plastic service autos as they did dicking around with aftermarket triggers, they'd probably be better off, and that applies to me, too (although in my defense, the Apex RAM in my M&P9 cost, like, less than a box of ammo and took less time to install than it does to drive to the range...)

"It's the economy, stupid."

Remember in the movie Pink Floyd's The Wall, when young Roger Waters' Giant Self-Absorbed Ego Pink finds the drawer with his dad's old war stuff in it, and the lyrics start out "Kind old King George sent mother a note when he heard that father had gone..." and end with "...and my eyes still grow damp to remember His Majesty signed with his own rubber stamp"?

Well, the Right half of the blogosphere has been going bezonkoids over finding out that the Executive Branch, posing as Barry O. himself, sends out form letters signed by electric pen to the families of deceased servicemen, as though George W. Bush had stayed up late hand-composing the things...

Has a service member's next-of-kin, outside of extremely extraordinary circumstances, received a hand-signed, actually-dictated-to-the-president's-secretary letter since... hell, since Lincoln?

Folks, seriously, of all the real things to dogpile on Barry about, this is just a non-starter.


(H/T to An Ordinary American)
.

Honey, I shrunk the storm.

Three days ago, the weatherpersons in my roomie's TeeWee were saying that Isaac was going to dump four to seven inches of rain on us over the weekend, and that good Hoosiers should grab hip waders and report to the statehouse for their sandbag ration.

Yesterday, this had changed to a forecast of two to four inches of rain and Labor Day had been rescheduled for the first dry weekend in October.

This morning they're saying one to three inches and bring an umbrella to the Rib America festival and expect some pauses to dry the track at the NHRA Nationals.

At this rate, I expect clouds to pass over tonight and actually suck moisture up and out of the ground. (Or we'll all be drownded by this time tomorrow, one.)

Meanwhile, Nawrlins has flooded again. This is my shocked face.

I don't get it...

Been wandering around on some gun fora today:

• Every time I see a "Show off a picture of your Glock!" thread on a gun forum, I have to choke back the urge to post "See that picture above this post? Mine looks pretty much like that one."


• Why do some posters list their whole gun collection in their signature lines? I completely do not get that. Also, if I owned that many products from Heritage Manufacturing, I sure wouldn't be telling the whole world about it.


• I can take an hour or two of reading people who only make sporadic use of the shift key and insert an apostrophe before every incidence of the letter "s" before I have to go read something that has received the tender ministrations of a proofreader, lest I head up the nearest clock tower with a scoped rifle and a sack lunch.

A heck of a run...

Sitting at Oleg's kitchen table last week, composing a post, I realized that while I had blogged from that very chair many times before, it was the first time that I'd done it with anything but my old G3 iBook.

When I picked up that 17" Dell in New Hampshire earlier this year, it ended an eleven year run of using the key lime clamshell Mac laptop to do my interwebbing from the road. That's a heck of a run in today's world of disposable electronica.

It's still usable as a backup, too. Maybe I ought to look into getting a spare battery or two for it. You know, just in case.

It keeps me warm.

So, there's one of Caleb's auditioners writing up a field test of a Hi-Point C9, and I'm in the comments being a hater because it's what I do, and none of this is exceptionally unusual or noteworthy, but then! Lo! one of America's undercover retail security specialists shows up in comments to inform us that the elite Mall of America Food Court Team 6 may have transitioned to Hi-Point pistols and carbines from their previous loadout of Model 10s and Mossberg 500s.

Obviously this weapons system is a tactical platform that deserves a closer look, both for dynamic critical incidents as well as static routine ones*. Flawless reliability combined with combat accuracy (as long as you do your part!) is a package that can't be overlooked lightly.


*But not critical dynamic incidents. Or incidental critical dynamics.

Automotif V:

Seen on this morning's bicycle ride:

'48 or '49 Ford F-2 3/4-ton work truck. Obviously still hard at work.

Fat tires and twin centerline pipes would identify the 267 hp 2012 Golf R even if the solitary "R" badges didn't.

I've noticed that I've already started using a gear or two higher than the ones I was using a few weeks ago on my morning rides. I hardly use the 28 tooth cog on the back anymore for anything other than acceleration crossing Kessler Boulevard, otherwise I'm more or less always on the second or third smallest sprockets, given the shallow grades around here.

This is where hubris gets you.

Just yesterday I was all patting myself on the back over keeping up a 3.5 post/day average for seven years and so of course I wake up this morning and I've got bupkis. Total writer's block. My head is emptier than the Women's Studies building at the University of Riyadh.

We could sit around and tell knock-knock jokes, but I can't remember any of those off the top of my head, either.

I'm off to CNN.com; if I can't find anything to make fun of over there, I may as well go back to bed and try again later.

Haters gonna hate...

Apparently Andrew over at Vuurwapen Blog fired enough lo-bujit rounds through an AR midlength carbine in a short enough amount of time that the handguards burst into flame*.

So some people started slamming the MagPul MOE handguards.

Let me get this straight: He puts half a case of steel-cased Russkie ammo through the carbine in about as much time as it takes to play a Slipknot tune, and the handguards are defective because they caught fire?

Some people would bitch if you hanged them with a new rope...


*Raise your hand if you've ever melted or ignited the furniture on a long gun in the name of science. I have, but it was low-rent East Bloc hardware, back in the day when you could get an SKS and a case of ammo for not much more than dinner at Outback. Cosmoline smells like petroleum-soaked sweat socks when it burns, BTW.

About time...

By popular demand, the Federal Aviation Administration is forming a group to study policies governing the use of consumer electronics in the sky.

While I'm sure it's possible that playing with your vaccuum tube tester in the smoking section of a Convair 600 would mess with the LORAN-A receiver something fierce, it's getting harder to buy into the whole idea that the tiniest electrical impulse in the cabin will send a modern jetliner veering wildly out of control to crash into the nearest orphanage or oil refinery when the pilot's approach plates are on a frickin' iPad.

Seriously, if a plane's electronics are so temperamental that they're in danger of going all divide-by-zero should somebody accidentally turn on their mp3 player at the wrong moment, are you sure that it deserves an airworthiness certificate?


*I was going to say "turns on their Walkman", but realized that doing so would mark me as an incipient geriatric.

VII

On a whim yesterday, I did some searching on the Wikipedia:

The Far Side 15 years
Calvin and Hobbes 10 years
The X-Files 9 years
Bloom County 9 years
House 8 years
Moonlighting 5 years

...so VFTP should have at least another couple of years before it becomes self-parody, burned out, or has a major cast member leave in a contractual huff.

Today marks seven years of pretty-much daily muttering over a keyboard before 0800 by someone who is not notably a morning person: 7 years, 8962 posts, 130148 comments, and 5360308 visits.

I'd like to sit around and mull over even more statistics 'cause I'm a nerd like that, but it's getting on towards eight, and I gotta get a post up...

Thanks for reading, everybody.
.

Miscellania:

• Remember I was talking about how much I liked my LED Lenser P3 AFS flashlight? Well, I lost it. I picked up a Streamlight Protac 2AA at the Mountain of Geese to serve in its stead, and it's a nice light, but it's just a bit too long for the front pockets of my mom jeans. I have since ordered a replacement P3 AFS from Amazon.


• Saw Mike Williamson at the 1500. He had a pretty droll new tee shirt...


• Picked up another M&P mag and another AR mag, because gun show. Also got my hands on one of those funky little Raven Vanguard 2's to try out. Full post to follow soon-ish.

The Saga Continues...

Back in '05, the Indiana State Police traded in their Beretta 96G pistols for Glock 22s. The swap would have seemed a no-brainer, since the .40 caliber Berettas weren't known for their long service lives and the Glock 22 was pretty much the Standard American Cop Gun. The usual Tommy Lee Jones-esque nonsense was spouted:

Firearm instructor Ritch Reynolds says the new weapons can take a beating, "The Glock has proven or shown it can operate in any kind of environmental situation, freezing weather, snow, drop it in the sand, water, mud, bring it up and it will perform."

So it was more than a little embarrassing when the ISP Glock 22s turned out to be so problematic that they were withdrawn and replaced with Glock 17s within a year.

It's now six years later and there're tax dollars apparently burning a hole in someone's pockets here in Indianapolis, for the G17s have suddenly "reached the end of their service life" and are being replaced with .45 ACP pistols because God and John Wayne.

Indiana Staties will have the choice of carrying an issued Glock 21 or a privately-purchased .45 ACP firearm as long as it's one of the following models:

Glock 21SF
S&W M&P Mid Size
S&W M&P Full Size
Sig Sauer P220 Full Size
Sig Sauer P250 Full Size
Sig Sauer P260 Full Size
Sig Sauer P227 Full Size
Springfield XD Service Model
Springfield XD Tactical Model
Springfield XDM 4.5
Springfield XDM 5.25
FNH USA FNX-45
FNH USA FNS-45
Beretta Px4 Storm Full

I have no earthly idea what a SIG P260 or P227 is supposed to be, but knowing the way SIG's been run lately, it probably has to do with a rainbow anodized titanium finish, or something goofy laser-engraved on the top of the slide. I also find it odd that there isn't anything from You Suck And We Hate You, GmbH on the approved list.

Overheard in the Office...

RX: "You start out in this world with well-established celebrities that everybody knows, and by the time you're old, there's just all these weird kids."

Me: "Tell me about it. I mean, I'm happy to know about celebrities like Britney Spears and David Beckham and... what's-her-face... David Beckham's wife..."

RX: "Old Spice."

It only takes one Awsh!t to erase a dozen Attaboys.

Once having a rep for some of the sloppiest marksmanship in Christendom, the NYPD had spent brazillions of dollars on training for its officers and by all accounts, both publicized and anecdotal, it appeared to be paying off, with such notable successes as that one detective who batted 1.000 on the dude with a malf'ed TEC-9 (or whatever it was) in front of a crowded Times Square hotel lobby.

And then you get the clown show at the Empire State Building the other day.

Come on, Bloomberg: Step in front of a camera and tell us how only the police have the training and professionalism to handle a pistol. Maybe you could do it in front of a scrolling backdrop of the hospital bills you're going to be paying because The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight went cyclic on a city street.

That's gotta suck for Bloomie. What appeared to be an ideal soapbox for a little blood-dancing national conversation on how America's lax gun laws are hurting Mike's fat-free, sugar-free, low sodium gun-free paradise turns into a national conversation on why the hell can't Mike's cops shoot?

Overheard in the Hallway...

Me: "I have now added ibuprofen and Band-Aids to the things I carry in my turse..."

RX: "That sounds like a good idea."

Me: "...along with the Kleenex and handi-wipes and toilet paper and a spork."

RX: "Uh, that last combination is a little gross, when you think about it."

Firearms-Related Miscellenia:

Went out to Premier Arms with Turk Turon yesterday. Out on the rack, among the more pedestrian Glenfield Model 60s, shotguns of various types, and a small clutch of Mausers, was a Dutch M71/88 Beaumont-Vitali. It is now on layaway. I'm a sucker for military black powder cartridge rifles. Also, while I was there, they straightened up the front sight on my Glock 19 for nothing when I mentioned that it was crooked in the course of telling a funny anecdote...

Speaking of which, I arrived home from Tennessee to be told by my roommate that my package had arrived from Brownells. Package? I don't recollect ordering anything... Well, it seems that my post about the M&P mag goof triggered some sympathy, because the box contained a high capacity extra power mag spring and a +5 extended base pad. Thank you, Gun Parts Fairy! Range test to follow shortly!

Meanwhile, today is Fun Show Day! Let's sing the Fun Show Song!

Flintlocks and Flop-tops
And Number Three Russians
Black-powder Mausers
From jackbooted Prussians,
Shiny Smith PC's from limited runs
These are a few of my favorite guns.

Socketed bay'nets
On Zulu War rifles,
Engraved, iv'ried Lugers
That make quite an eyefull
Mosin tomato stakes sold by the ton
These are a few of my favorite guns.

Rusty top-breaks!
Smallbore Schuetzens!
And all of Browning's spawn
I just keep on browsing my favorite guns
Until all my money's gone.

Incidentally, my former employer, Coal Creek Armory, is under new ownership. Said new ownership has a Laser Shot system for training and whatnot. They let me play with it. It only took two people and a spatula to get me to turn loose of the laser Glock...

The only thing that could make the Laser Shot cooler would be strapping it to the head of a shark.

Stuff.

Turk Turon is in town.

Bobbi grilled up some steak à la Roseholme last night; I remain flabbergasted by the results. I have never had a steak that good in a restaurant, and I've eaten some mighty good restaurant steaks, let me tell you.

I mean to write something for my sadly-neglected other blog this morning. Just as soon as I get back from my bicycle ride, that is. I need to pedal down to whatever Kinko's is calling themselves these days and do some printing and faxing.

Huh. Firefox's spell checker knows "Kinko's".

Anyhow, what with the trip to the almost-a-dentist yesterday, I've been a week and a day without my morning rides, and so it's time and past time to climb back on that horse.

Fun show tomorrow. Need to get a Raven IWB to hold my M&P 9 with the CTC Lightguard on it. I'm pretty well sold on that thing after that midnight match. You can't hit what you can't see, after all.

Also, pictures of great big trees and great big chainsaws right here. Found here.

Random gratuitous picture of the Columbia River Gorge snapped from a bus window.

Where's Chewie?

Work it, wookie! Make love to the camera!

Back from my roadtrip, now I'm off to the almost-a-dentist. More bloggery will be committed upon my return. In the interim, guess where the above photo of Chewie the Purse Wookie was snapped and win... er, the admiration of your peers or something.

Here, chew on this while I think of a topic...

The sheer, anal-retentive level of detail in this thing is just breathtaking:



I was playing it on the computer in the gunsmithing department when someone, I can't remember who because no gunsmith I've ever met has a conversational filter, piped up "It's good to see the Germans making model airports. It worries me when they make model railroads; they seem to get the cattle cars a little too accurate."